Orchestras: The Elite Eleven

When the Ford Foundation awarded an $85
million grant to U.S. orchestras five months ago, it was paying tribute
to the nation's richest and most underrated cultural asset. The
symphony orchestra has long been a mighty factor in the creative life
of U.S. communities, but most Americans, cowed by a self-consciousness
about European culture, have never acknowledged it.

Actually, when it comes to making symphony music, the Old World is not
only inferior to the U.S., it isn't even old. The New York
Philharmonic, for example, was founded in 1842,...